Current Perspectives on the Use of off the Shelf CAR-T/NK Cells for the Treatment of Cancer

Simple Summary CAR T cells are a type of immunotherapy whereby a patient's own cells are genetically modified to recognise and kill the patient's own cancer cells. Currently, each patient has CAR T cells made from their own blood cells. This type of therapy has had a big impact on the treatment of blood cancers, however making an individual treatment from each patient is expensive and labour intensive. This review discusses the potential of making CAR T cells more widely available by producing them in large numbers from healthy donors. CAR T cells have revolutionised the treatment of haematological malignancies. Despite this, several obstacles still prohibit their widespread use and efficacy. One of these barriers is the use of autologous T cells as the carrier of the CAR. The individual production of CAR T cells results in large variation in the product, greater wait times for treatment and higher costs. To overcome this several novel approaches have emerged that utilise allogeneic cells, so called off the shelf CAR T cells. In this Review, we describe the different approaches that have been used to produce allogeneic CAR T to date, as well as their current pre-clinical and clinical progress.

Automated summary

CAR T cells are a type of immunotherapy that has revolutionised the treatment of haematological malignancies by genetically modifying a patient's own cells to target and kill cancer cells. However, obstacles such as the individual production of CAR T cells result in variability in the product, longer wait times for treatment, and higher costs. Novel approaches utilizing allogeneic cells, known as off the shelf CAR T cells, have emerged to overcome these challenges.